Oh yah: It’s daring to trust and be adventurous that opens up the possibility of teaching. I remember that now.

So, today I could teach about Joseph Smith. I could help them get a sense for basic Church History events.

I could teach about Joseph Smith and let them listen to the words of JS-H so they can know those, and hope they have something to say or a question I can answer.

But these don’t seem to be the way to go.

I could also just see what happens of course and perhaps not even teach about Joseph Smith

I could have them watch the video and then ask them questions “What do you think? What do you make of it?” Etc – and try to rely on the Spirit to know what questions to ask??? Maybe that’s the way to think of it? I can’t tell something’s not right. Asking their thoughts – yes. Why do I feel like I need the Spirit to ask the right question? That should feel like a faithful move, but the Spirit is right now telling me that it is not. Perhaps it’s because I don’t trust the girls if I don’t ask the right question. Perhaps it is that feeling that the Spirit is not affirming.

I could think about the Apostasy and Restoration in a general way and see what happens.

I could take the Apostasy theme as a chance to talk about how all of us will go through times where we have forgotten God, or forgotten/never knew a doctrine or something like that and how all of us can “ask of God” when that happens and really can receive our own revelation? (Like I’m doing right now)

We could just talk about prayer.

We could just talk about James 1:5.

We could watch the video AND talk about James 1:5.

We could talk about personal experiences about prayer and revelation. One girl hasn’t felt confident that she has ever felt the Spirit. We’ve talked about it before and others have born testimony to her. But perhaps it will happen again today?

I could have them look things up about revelation. I could have them use True to the Faith about receiving revelation. I can trust them to think about that book and about the scriptures.

I guess I’ve lost that trust somewhere along the line. Maybe it was being distracted by some adults I was concerned about. Maybe it was a hundred other things. But I think that I lost that trust, and that is was has closed me from being adventurous. And to paraphrase Ranciere, it’s “trusting the Spirit is what opens the way to all adventure in the land of knowledge. It is a matter of daring to be adventurous.” And, it’s “trusting your students is what opens the way to all adventure in the land of knowledge. It is a matter of daring to be adventurous.” It’s time to be adventurous again. Time to be daring!

Wish me luck!

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Our “thing in common” is the Joseph Smith story, and any of those above ideas might come out as we talk, because they might think about them, or a hundred other possibilities!